Federer Wins Cincinnati Masters

Roger Federer defeated Mardy Fish 6-7, 7-6, 6-4 in a very close, very well-played match in Cincinnati. This is the fourth time Roger has won the Cincinnati Masters event and his second title of the year. It's exciting to see Federer playing great tennis again and he has to be the favourite going into the US Open.

Mardy Fish stayed with Federer throughout the entire match and it only took one break of serve for Federer to win the last set—and the match. This is the best tennis Fish has ever played and he should be feeling pretty confident going into the US Open next week.

By making it to the finals in Cincinnati, Federer assured himself the number 2 position at the Open—meaning he will hit either Murray or Djokovic in the semifinals, and he can't play Nadal until the finals (this is, of course, assuming they all make it that far into the draw). Fish's great results this summer have moved his ranking to number 21 in the world—very close to his all time ranking high of 17—which means he will be seeded at the US Open.

Neither Federer nor Fish will play in any tournaments this week, so the next time we see either of them will be at the final grand slam of the year in New York City. Can't wait.

The Fed vs. The Fish in Cincy Finals

Roger Federer and Mardy Fish have both made it to the finals of the Western and Southern Financial Group Masters event (seriously, the name of this tournament is way too long) in Cincinnati. They will play against each other tomorrow in the last big event before the US Open. 

Federer played a great semifinal match against Baghdatis today to book his spot in the finals, and he is the only player to make the finals of the Masters events in Toronto and Cincinnati this year. More importantly, he seems to be playing better with each match, and he's starting to look more and more like the Roger Federer who was nearly impossible to beat.

Fish has had an unbelievable summer as well, and he showed us how much he's improved—and how much his 30 lb. weight loss has helped his game—by defeating Andy Roddick today in three sets. I never thought I'd be saying this, and I know majors are a different thing altogether, but Mardy could do some serious damage at the US Open. 

I think you have to go with Roger as being the favourite tomorrow, but after reading Mardy's interview today you can see how much he wants this: 

Q: Any preference on who you play tomorrow?

MARDY FISH: No. I mean, it’s not where I expected to be in the beginning of the week. Like I said, I knew I was playing well, but how high or the level, you know, I wasn’t too sure about. So I feel like I can beat anyone, to be honest. I mean, I remember the final here in 2003 like it was yesterday. This will be my third Masters Series final. I desperately want to win one.

Watch out Roger! Mardy wants this bad. 

But something tells me R. Fed does too.

Interview Aces This Week

Cincinnati Masters

Q. I guess this win gets you back in the top 10 when the next world rankings come out. Is that something you pay any attention to at all?
ANDY RODDICK: (Laughing.) Um, I wish I got to talk about it as much when I am in the top 10 as opposed to when I'm not. It's only a story when I'm not.

Q. Can I ask you about a serve that you didn't make tonight, but that's obviously being talked about a lot on the Internet. Is that for real?
ROGER FEDERER: Oh, that thing? Yeah. Well, there's a lot of the debate at the moment, you know. You know how it is with magicians. They don't tell how their tricks work, you know. (Smiling.) I don't do it that much, but, yeah, it was shot in one piece and it was — the guy took a chance. (Smiling.) It worked out. I'm happy.
[later]
Q. Back to the video for a second, have you ever done anything like that before, knocked something off somebody's head?
ROGER FEDERER: Um, well, I had to do it before so I knew I could do it, otherwise it was risky for him, right? But no — what was the — what did you mean exactly?
Q. Knocking the thing off the guy's head.
ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, it worked out. I've done it before.
Q. So it was definitely real?
ROGER FEDERER: Not saying that. A magician doesn't tell how his tricks work, so... (Laughter.)

Q. First game of the match you hit a dropshot winner, and he [Andy Murray] gave you a stare down. You kind of looked over like, What's going on? I noticed that. And then even at the changeover he appeared to say something. Was something going on right out of the gate with him?
MARDY FISH: No. I mean, you know, we're not in the first round of a small tournament anymore. I mean, these are the big -- it's big money here; big points here; bigtime confidence going into the US Open, you know. So it's two competitive guys. I welcome it. I like a little bit of trash talk. It's fine. I was fine with it.

US Open Tennis Series

The month of July is a little slow in the tennis world. You have two huge tournaments--the French Open and Wimbledon--played so close together, and then once Wimbledon ends it seems to take forever until we get to see a tournament where all the top players will play. Which is why I'm so looking forward to the Rogers Cup (and not just because I live in Toronto).

I think it will be really interesting to see who does well at the Rogers Cup and in Cincinnati this year. In the past I don't think the results of these two big tournaments in Cincinnati and Toronto have mattered all that much on the men's side because regardless of the results beforehand, you could pretty much assume that Federer was going to win the US Open and that Nadal's knees were going to burn out by this point in the year and that he wasn't going to be too much of a threat by the time the US Open came around. However, this year I think there are multiple players who could win the final Grand Slam of the year, and if Nadal's knees are okay then I think he's going to be a big favourite to finally win the title.

And for the first time in a long time I think that Federer needs to do fairly well in either Toronto or Cincinnati if he wants to make it to the final and possibly win the US Open again. I think he needs to win one of these lead-up events to show the other players that he's still one of the best (if not the very best) hardcourt player in the world. He also hasn't won a title of any kind in a while so I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to get another big win before the next Grand Slam.